“I have no interest whatsoever in dressing Melania Trump,” designer Marc Jacobs said to Women’s Wear Daily.
“I will not participate in dressing or associating in any way with the next First Lady,” designer Sophie Theallet said in an open letter on Twitter.
“I would rather concentrate my energies on efforts towards a more just, honorable and a mutually respectful world. I don’t know Melania Trump personally, so I don’t wish my comments to seem I am prejudging her personal values, but I really don’t see myself getting involved with the Trump presidency,” designer Derek Lam said to Women’s Wear Daily.
These are just three of several public comments made by designers about their unwillingness to dress the upcoming first lady. While these comments have mostly been about dressing Melania, this presumably applies to Donald Trump as well because the reason designers are refusing to dress Melania is their dislike of the president-elect.
Though there are countless jobs and actions the president and first lady must take on that are of higher importance than their attire, the ability to dress the leader of the United States and his wife has been considered the highest honor and achievement by many designers.
Clothing plays an important role in most every event the president and the first lady attend. From the beginnings of a presidency at the inaugural ball to White House state dinners to traveling across the world for international events, the presidential couple have always been dressed proudly by a wide array of designers.
I imagine when it came to dressing the president and the first lady in the past, it was a selection, not a search. Countless designers likely stood in line with unimaginable designs prepared to come to life on the first lady.
However, as the Inaugural Ball approaches in January, few, if any, designers seems to be jumping at the chance to dress the president-elect or the first lady. In fact, they seem to be dreading it.
The fashion world once made its connection to politics by creating looks for the monumental moments in a president’s term, but now the fashion industry seems to be making its connection to the political world by making a statement by refusing to support the upcoming changes.
Many designers seem to be uniting in their stance against the Trump presidency. It’s their own form of protest. The question is, how long will they be on strike?
While a few designers, such as Tommy Hilfiger, have said they will have no problem dressing the Trumps, there is still an undeniable shift coming to the closets of Donald and Melanie.
Perhaps as time passes and Trump officially becomes the president, those designers will moderate their stances. In the meantime, however, the Trumps may be wearing the same designers more frequently.
It seems as though the president’s stylist will have an extremely tough job even getting designers to pick up the phone for the White House in the days to come.
apoudrie@indiana.edu
